16 Facts About Nan Winton

Nancy Wigginton, known professionally as Nan Winton, was a British broadcaster, best known for being the first female newsreader to read the national news on BBC television.

Nan Winton left school at 15, to run the household; her mother having died.

Nan Winton was a BBC TV continuity announcer from 1958 to 1961 and an experienced journalist, who had worked on Panorama and Town and Around.

Nan Winton was given the job of reading the 6pm news and weekend bulletins on Sunday evenings, in response to rivals ITN, who had a female newscaster, Barbara Mandell, from its launch in 1955.

Nan Winton worked alongside contemporaries, including Kenneth Kendall and Michael Aspel, on the national news.

Nan Winton was not the first woman to read the news on the BBC Television service: Armine Sandford broadcast on the BBC's West Region in Bristol from 1957.

Nan Winton began on 20 June 1960, and her role was intended as an experiment.

BBC executives believed that Nan Winton was serious enough to counteract the prejudice that women were "too frivolous to be the bearers of grave news".

Stuart Hood, a BBC manager at the time whose idea it was to appoint Nan Winton, once confirmed that this was much the opinion of his colleagues at time as well.

Nan Winton herself recalled that she had problems with BBC editorial staff rather than the public.

The press at the time were dismissive of Nan Winton reading the news.

Nan Winton was removed from the role in March 1961.

Nan Winton remained the only woman to have read the national news on BBC television until 1975, when Angela Rippon became the first female BBC newsreader to be appointed permanently.

Nan Winton was a regular panellist on the radio panel game Treble Chance.

In 1948 Nan Winton married the actor Charles Stapley, who later appeared as Ted Hope in Crossroads.

Nan Winton died on 11 May 2019, aged 93, three days after a fall at her house in Bridport, Dorset.